


Disharmony

by Enina



Series: The Road We Travel (Goes On And On) [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Frustration, M/M, Sadness, Unrequited Love, it goes on and on - Freeform, like the fucking Groundhog Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-06-14
Packaged: 2018-04-04 08:52:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4131585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enina/pseuds/Enina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry has enough of Eobard ruining his life out of spite or self-pity (whatever the man has going for himself right now).</p><p>He tells him so, only to be confronted with the realiry of things and how they are both stuck in this miserable version of Groundhog Day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Disharmony

* * *

 

“Are you doing this because I’ve pissed you off somehow?” Barry tries to keep his voice calm but he is pretty sure that the anger he is feeling has to be palpable anyway.

Eobard, who is currently sitting in this damn chair of his again because both Caitlin and Cisco have still been around till five minutes ago, looks up from the monitor he studied. There is the tightness to his face that is always present these days and Barry tries not to notice how tired the other man looks, the bag under his eyes are a clear indication that he couldn’t have gotten much sleep if any at all.

“Are you trying to _ruin_ this for me?” he goes on angrily and makes his way over to Eobard, who is still just watching him quietly, as if he has swallowed his damn tongue. “They both think something is up with you. Cisco actually ask me whether I am thinking that you’ve been behaving _suspicious_!”

His voices raises involuntarily and he forces himself to calm down again.

“I don’t want you to _mess this up_ ,” he seethes and his fists are itching to connect with that bastards face who is still just looking at him, who doesn’t even seem angered by his words. “If you want to wallow in self-pity, please, be my guest, but I want to have this fucking life and I don’t want this to go down the drain again because you can’t keep it together, _Thawne_.”

Barry has just started dating his new co-worker, Patty Spivot, who had been his wife a couple of times by now and whom he cares immensely for. He doesn’t want to lose her – she always leaves when she learns that he isn’t who she thought he was and he is never able to make her stay – just because Eobard feels to be complicated right now. This damn man has been messing up nearly all of their last handful of lives because he seems to have the urge to remind him what kind of jackass he is and Barry really has had enough of it.

“Because of that pretty blond lady of yours?” Eobard’s voice sounds acid even though he gives him a sweet smile. “It has to be Patty, isn’t it? You should get married with her in about two years’ time from now, don’t you? Seeing that you can’t have Iris, you usually settle for her –”

“ _Shut up_ ,” hisses Barry and makes a threatening step closer to the still sitting man, so that he is looming over him. “You will _not_ mention Iris or anybody else to my face when we are alone, you damn bastard –”

“Really, Barry?” Eobard actually laughs at that but it sounds hollow and angry. “Am I not good enough to mention that pretty little sweetheart of yours you will _never_ get?”

A nasty expression appears on Eobards face and he leans back into his chair, considering Barry with fake curiosity. “You think she is currently with my dear ancestor? Eating dinner? Maybe riding his cock like you liked to do with mine? It is already rather late, isn’t it?”

Barry just stares at the other man for a long silent moment, not sure whether he is angrier with Eobard for doing this or himself to for being stupid enough to really hope that this would not happen.

“You are really doing this?” he asks quietly and watches how Eobard’s taunting smirk changes into a scowl. “Do you seriously believe that you can force me into having sex with you again?”

“I do no such thing,” hisses Eobard and finally gets out from the wheelchair, teeth bared like a dog who is about to attack. “I have _never_ forced you to sleep with me.” He sounds nearly reproachful, as if he couldn’t believe that Barry would accuse him of this.

“Because we both know what a damn _saint_ you are, don’t we, Thawne?” scoffs Barry and crosses his arms in front of his chest. “I am so _sorry_ for even just considering this to be an option.”

“ _Fuck you_ ,” Eobard is the one who looks ready to punch him now and Barry is glad because he has hated how passive the other man has gotten over the last couple of months – so damn docile and letting Barry just vent his anger and frustration, which in turn made him feel like an ass even though he has every right to do so.

“What?” chuckles Barry. “Have I touched a sore spot? What do you think it was what we have been doing?”

“I have never forced you,” repeats the other speedster and he sounds both livid and upset, which causes quite a pleasant satisfaction stir inside Barry. “You came to me most of the time.”

“You _forced_ this _miserable existence_ upon me,” he laughs and it unsettles him a bit how close to hysterical he sounds there for a second. “Are you really this fucking out of your mind that you think I actually wanted any of this?! That I would have ever gone to you if it weren’t for how fucked up everything is thanks to _you_?”

“You _wanted_ it,” Eobard steps close enough to Barry that he can actually feel his hot breath on his face. “You can tell yourself whatever you want, Barry, but you enjoyed it just as much as I did.”

Barry returns his gaze firmly and can’t help but hate him for probably really believing this.

… for maybe being _right_.

“I’ve never enjoyed being even just in the _same room_ as you,” he says quietly but firmly and makes a step back to get some more distance between them. “If you were anybody else you would have realized this by now.”

They glare at each other for a long moment before Barry decides that this is getting him nowhere and he really doesn’t want to have to be around the other man any longer.

“Just get a grip of yourself,” he says grimly and turns halfway toward the exit before he hesitates for a second. With some reluctance he turns back to Eobard. “I know that we are stuck in this together and that you are just as _miserable_ as I am but I will never be what you want me to be. I can’t even look at you without- ”

Barry stops himself because, while he hates Eobard and wishes that he could finally get rid of him for good, he also know that the other man hasn’t been the most stable lately and he doesn’t want to push him over the edge by accident.

“Please, don’t do this to me again,” he goes on instead in a softer voice.

The silence that follows drags on long enough for Barry to assume that Eobard would not answer him anymore. The fury in Eobard’s gaze is intense but hardly able to cover the hurt that shimmers through from below it.

Like so often these days, Barry feels pity for him and decides that he would try to come and speak with him another time again should he not stop trying to give them away by his odd behaviour.

“I can’t.”

Surprised, Barry halts and turns back to Eobard who is watching him now with very sombre and weary looking eyes.

“I can’t change the way I feel about you, Barry,” he explains in a nearly subdued tone before he chuckles in a way that sounds just wrong. “I’ve tried to, you _arrogant ass_. You think I _want_ to live like this?”

There is a trembling quality to Eobards voice and Barry nearly feels sick when the realisation hits him that the other man is close to an actual break down. Closer than he has ever been and it sets Barry on edge because he cannot deal with this.

“You should have thought about this before you put us two into this deranged version of _Groundhog Day_ ,” he states coldly, immediately feeling like an ass despite knowing that it is just the truth.

Eobard’s expression hardens briefly before it becomes utterly vacant, which causes Barry to get goose bumps because the man is behaving so damn odd and he doesn’t like how he can’t gauge the way he would react – this is _never_ a good thing, he knows that from _experience_.

“You are quite right, Mr Allen, I did fail to consider certain possibilities,” there is this familiar faint smile on the other man’s lips, it seem both indulgent and amused, and like this, Eobard has slipped back into his Harrison Wells’ persona Barry has to deal with whenever they are not on their own. This seriously gives him the hebejebes because this never happens, Eobard _hates_ to play this role…

If his alarms hadn’t been off before, they are definitely _now_.

“Eobard-”

The sound of footsteps catch them both off-guard and Barry feels his heart jump up into his throat, worried that someone could have overheard anything they have said. He quickly realizes how unlikely this is, though, and judging by the hard sound of high-heels on the floor, it has to be Caitlin. There is no way for her to have sneaked up on them without their notice.

It irks him to no end when he notices how Eobard walks back to the chair in a ridiculously leisurely tempo, like that bastard has no hurries in the world.

“Hey, sorry,” Caitlin enters, seeming light out of breath, and quickly walks over to the main console of the room where Cisco usually takes residence. She looks around for a moment before she makes a soft _Aha_ sound under her breath and picks something up.

“I’ve forgotten the charger of my phone,” she explains with a small embarrassed chuckle and briefly shows the small white device to them. “I’m visiting a friend and I want to charge it on my way over to her house.”

Caitlin’s smiles dims and a very familiar frown returns on her face when she actually looks at them for the first time.

“Is everything alright?” she asks hesitantly and there is a slight worry to how she is studying them now.

Before Barry has the opportunity to assure her that everything is indeed alright, Eobard beats him to it. The other man rolls his chair slightly back, so that he can face her better, and gives her a thin but friendly enough smile. Once again Barry notices how bone tired he looks.

“Of course, Dr Snow,” Eobard turns to Barry and this strange hollowness is back in his eyes, “Barry was just about to leave as well. He is meeting with a very sweet new co-worker of his for dinner.”

Barry nearly bristles because he could kick this bastard for still spying on him. There is hardly anything her hates more! This is so ridiculous, apparently he has to start to check his surrounding for damn spy cameras again. It is a good thing Caitlin his here because otherwise he would have punched Eobard.

“ _Really_?” asks Caitlin and loses most of the worry that has clung to her voice – instead she sounds slightly put out by not being filled in in this little plan of his. “I didn’t know you are going to have a _date_ tonight, Barry.”

“It must have slipped my mind?” asks Barry and tries to give her the most innocent look he can muster, which doesn’t seem to impress her very much.

“But you remembered when telling Dr Wells?” she sounds rather accusingly and Barry feels the urge to super-speed over to Eobard and cuff him over the back of his head. He is pretty sure the other speedster would not stay put and simply take it, though.

“He can tell you on your way out,” Eobard suggests before he turns back to the monitor he had been studying before Barry interrupted him.

Caitlin seems a bit surprised by this rather obvious dismissal and gives Barry a confused look, which he returns with a roll of his eyes and an easy and reassuring smile. Inwardly he is as bothered by Eobard’s odd behaviour as she is, though.

Briefly, he plays with the notion to send the young woman on her way alone but dismisses it quickly again as he knows that it only would cause more suspicion than he has already to worry about. Aside from that, Eobard is clearly not in the mood to talk anymore and Barry doesn’t think that it would be a good idea to push him into a corner tonight.

Catilin and he say their goodbyes to Eobard who returns it without looking away from the screen and Barry follows her outside the lab.

He would try and talk to the other speedster tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, despite my initial intent to leave “The Road We Travel” as a standalone, I think I will play with this idea a bit more. It will not be an outright story, though, I simply don’t have the time for another one right now, but more like a series of events taking place in this universe.
> 
> This story is not edited yet and I apologize for any grammar errors and such.
> 
> I hope you liked it!


End file.
